The Philadelphia Church

And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matt 4:19)"

The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is Moses is the little scroll part two.

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Weekly Readings

For the Sabbath of November 12, 2011

Part Two

The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.

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Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down." And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, "Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land." So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, "Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey." And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, "You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings." (Rev 10:1–11 emphasis added)

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3.

In his gospel, John gives Christendom the narrative structure for Peter’s two epistles: feed my lambs (1 Pet chaps 1–3), tend my sheep (1 Pet chaps 4 & 5), feed my sheep (all of 2 Pet). Twice Jesus tells Peter to feed disciples, once when they are infants and only able to ingest milk, and again when they have reached a maturity of faith comparable to that of the first disciples, the Apostles.

The importance of “food” in Scripture is largely overlooked; for food tends to be considered as food, rather than as knowledge that separates righteousness and holiness from what is common, or of this world with its desires of the flesh (i.e., business knowledge, medical knowledge, etc.). And in feeding the lambs of Christ, Peter writes, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet 1:14–16) … and where is it written, You shall be holy for I am holy? Is it not written here,

Every swarming thing that swarms on the ground is detestable; it shall not be eaten. Whatever goes on its belly, and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet, any swarming thing that swarms on the ground, you shall not eat, for they are detestable. You shall not make yourselves detestable with any swarming thing that swarms, and you shall not defile yourselves with them, and become unclean through them. For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. (Lev 11:51–45 emphasis added)

Israel could defile itself as a nation in many ways: through idolatry, through transgressing the Sabbaths of God, through marrying foreign wives [or husbands], through eating common meats. In Leviticus the law is given concerning meats, with the summation of the as follows,

This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten. (Lev 11:46–47)

All flesh was given to Noah and his sons as food (Gen 9:3), but Israel was to separate itself from the nations [Gentiles] by being holy as God is holy—by refraining from eating what could be eaten and only eating those things that the Lord identified as fit food for a holy people … the law concerning clean and unclean meats wasn’t given to Israel for health reasons as Seventh Day Adventists teach, or as the former Worldwide Church of God taught, but given to make a visible distinction between Israel and its neighbors. The Lord God determined for Israel what was to be eaten by the firstborn son of the Lord and what was not to be eaten so as to make a separation in the flesh as the Sabbath made a separation in the spirit [breath as in life]. Hence, Peter, in feeding the lambs of Christ, told these spiritual infants,

Though you have not seen him [Jesus], you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of [psychon souls]. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the [breath of Christ] in them [testifying beforehand the for Christ sufferings and the after these glories]. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 1:8–13 emphasis added)

Preparing minds for action, being sober minded, setting one’s hope fully on the grace that comes with revelation—all of these inner actions equate with the body eating clean meats so that the new disciple will inwardly be holy as God is holy … where is the argument for eating unclean meats so that the inwardly holy person can live in a body that is outwardly defiled? Is that argument in, it isn’t what goes into the body [clean or unclean meats] that defiles the person, but what comes out from the heart of the person (Matt 15:11)—and if this is the argument, note Jesus’ explanation of His words:

But Peter said to him, "Explain the parable to us." And he [Jesus] said, "Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone." (Matt 15:15–20 double emphasis added)

In 1st-Century Israel, eating unclean meats was never an issue: it simply wasn’t even considered. What Jesus addressed when He spoke of being defiled was eating with unwashed hands. So no valid argument can be made from Scripture supporting eating ham on Easter so as to make a statement about not being Jewish—eating ham on Easter does, however, make a strong statement about the Christian not being of God but being, instead, a son of the Adversary.

To be holy as God is holy is a matter of the elders of the Assembly feeding new converts clean food, the antithesis of evil thoughts, murder [anger against brother], adultery [lust], sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander … the antithesis of murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander is to keep the commandments of God; i.e., to keep the Ten Commandments.

Again, the antithesis of evil thoughts is being sober minded though setting hope fully on the grace that comes via revelation from Christ Jesus; the antithesis of being angry with brother, lusting after someone else’s spouse, fornication, theft, bearing false witness is to keep the commandments. So in Peter feeding the lambs and later the sheep, readers of Peter’s epistles should expect to find what they are to do about preparing the new convert’s mind for action; plus, readers should expect to find Peter exhorting disciples to keep the commandments … sheep do not eat meat, nor strong herbs. Rather lambs suckle ewes, and sheep graze good pasture. So in Peter’s epistles as he feeds lambs and sheep, endtime disciples should not expect to find spiritual meat.

But in Peter’s epistles is found good pasture:

[God’s] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. (2 Pet 1:3–10 emphasis added)

Peter tells those disciples who have obtained a faith comparable with the first disciples that faith alone is not adequate for salvation, that faith must be supplemented by virtue … the essence of Evangelical Christendom is that faith alone is sufficient for salvation, a teaching that discloses spiritual infancy at best.

The maturation of a son of God is patterned after human maturation: the physical [human maturation] reveals and precedes the spiritual (cf. Rom 1:20; 1 Cor 15:46). Hence, a human infant is born helpless, fully dependent upon parents. The physical reason for a human infant being born at an earlier state than the offspring of most mammals has to do with the size of the head passing through the woman’s pelvis: if a human child obtained the level of development of, say, a lamb, the head of the human child would be too large to pass through the birth canal — and when the physical reveals the spiritual, the physical size of the human head at birth in relationship to the level of development of the human infant has significance.

A human child is approximately one year of age when the child has developed sufficiently to walk upright as a biped—the human child at one year of age is still primarily a milk drinker and in earlier cultures was entirely a milk drinker as the child was not weaned until three to five years old. By extension, a son of God at equivalent age to a human child of one year will begin to keep the commandments of God so as to walk uprightly before the Lord. Likewise, a son of God at equivalent age to a human child of three years of age—a child that is close to being weaned—will have just begun to comprehend dual referents (i.e., where one thing represents another thing as in a scale model of a thing representing the thing), a necessary stage of development before meaning can be taken from Scripture through typological exegesis.

What, now, is virtue? Is not virtue found in commandments against murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander? It is, isn’t it. So supplementing faith with virtue will have keeping the commandments being added to a convert’s faith, thereby giving to the convert knowledge and self-control, steadfastness and godliness so that the convert will be holy as God is holy. For the convert who dispatches evil thoughts and who voluntarily keeps the commandments has love for both God and brother. This convert is, now, well fed by Peter, but fed on milk and very tender pasture.

Generations of Christian converts have been starved by their elders insisting that faith alone was adequate for salvation, a situation that James addresses when he says,

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"--and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (Jas 2:14–26)

If a Christian professes with his or her mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes that the Father raised Jesus from death, the Christian is as Abraham was when he believed God that seed from his loins would be as the stars of heaven. This is where Paul leaves the Christian:

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness … (Rom 4:1–5)

Peter, in feeding lambs, would have Christian converts preparing minds for action, being sober minded, setting one’s hope fully on the grace that comes with revelation, which will have the convert being as Abram/Abraham was when Abram believed the Lord and had his belief counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6) … in Paul’s treatise to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be the holy ones (Rom 1:7), Paul writes to spiritual infants as he does in his epistle to the holy ones at Corinth:

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? (1 Cor 3:1–3 emphasis added)

Paul serves to Christian converts spiritual milk, not meat or strong herbs or even good pasture. And the milk that Paul has delivered to Christendom has soured stomachs and in general, has been puked out onto the shoulders of the Father and the Son as a human child spits up on parents.

Peter, in bringing a convert to Christ, didn’t lay before the spiritual infant the need to keep the commandments by faith before the infant’s mind was ready for fortified milk … the first milk that comes to a new mother, colostrum, is not like the later milk that feeds her infant. Newly born human infants have very small digestive systems: colostrum delivers nutrients in a concentrated, low-volume way that encourages the infant’s first bowel movement that purges from the infant’s body excess bilirubin thus helping to prevent jaundice. This first milk contains antibodies and growth factors, is lower in fat and higher in protein than ordinary milk. Its spiritual equivalent is preparing minds for action—

Colostrum is high in proteins, vitamin A, salt, but is lower in carbohydrates, lipids, and potassium than later milk. The antibodies in colostrum provide passive immunity against pathogens while stimulating intestinal development—

Preparing minds for action, being sober minded, setting one’s hope fully on the grace that comes with revelation provides passive immunity against evil while stimulating growth of the newly born inner self.

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John gives the narrative structure of Peter’s epistles by relating what Jesus told Peter to do (John 21:15–19) without calling attention to what he reveals about Peter’s epistles. However, chapter 21 of John’s Gospel seems to be an addendum in which John relates events without giving significance to these events. If these events are of no particular significance, why record the number of large fish caught? And if something has significance such as Jesus commissioning Peter to feed and tend His lambs and sheep by asking if Peter loved Jesus more than the other disciples (v. 15), a question that put Peter in an awkward situation, then a degree of narrative sophistication not appreciated exists in John’s writings.

Having greater love for Christ than for anyone in this world is somehow related to feeding and tending disciples, suggesting that love is to flow upward, from the body to its head; from Christ to the Father; for the Body of Christ to its Head, Christ Jesus. And this upward movement of love will have the Father knowing the needs of disciples and supplying those needs, thereby forming a loop that expresses the Father’s love for His sons … it isn’t Christ that directly supplies the needs of His disciples, but the Father working through those persons who are Christ’s and those who are not. Hence, Jesus said,

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matt 6:30–34 emphasis added)

Gentiles—the peoples of the nations; those peoples that are far from God—seek after the needs of their fleshly bodies, food, drink, raiment, needs that the fleshly bodies in which inner sons of God dwell also have. As the earthly house in which a disciple lives needs routine maintenance (repaired, repainted, reroofed), the fleshly bodies in which living inner selves that are sons of God need food, drink, clothing, things that do not equate with preparing minds for action, etc.

Eating clean meats is the physical application of being holy as God is holy—and disciples that are the living inner selves raised from death through receipt of a second breath of life, the breath of the Father [pneuma Theon], still live in physical/mortal bodies that are to remain undefiled. Hence, the disciple will no more desire to eat unclean meats than Peter desired to eat what was common in his vision (Acts 10:14). But if the fleshly body in which the disciple dwells does perchance eat what is unclean, the disciple isn’t defiled. It would, again, be the desire to eat what wasn’t given to Israel as food that would defile the disciple, not the actual consumption of what is common food.

Understand the above principle for the above will become an issue for endtime Christians: the newly born of spirit, living inner self that is a son of God cannot be defiled by the physical things of this world for this inner self is not of this world, but is a second life received from a second breath of life dwelling in the tent of flesh of the dead old man or old self. Therefore, what goes into the mouth and the stomach has no ability to defile this living inner self. However, everything that comes out from the heart of the person has the potential to defile this living inner self. So if lust for a ham sandwich comes out from the heart of the person, the living inner self is defiled regardless of whether that ham sandwich is ever eaten. For in lusting for a ham sandwich, the person transgresses the commandments of God in a way similar to lusting for the neighbor’s spouse (see Matt 5:27–28): the inner self transgresses the commandments and hence sins regardless of whether the mind causes the body to act upon the lusts of the belly or the lusts of the loins.

For a genuinely born of God Christian, to think a thought is analogous to committing an act … an inner son of God is the spiritual equivalent to a human child of one year of age when the inner self is no longer angry over slights, no longer desires the finer things of this world, no longer surrenders to lusts of the belly or the loins, no longer seeks to protect itself through falsity, false words, false appearances, false acts of goodness. The inner son of God will walk uprightly before God when the mind fully rules over the flesh.

The work of every disciple in the 1st-Century was to feed the lambs of Christ Jesus, those disciples who were new in Christ; those who hadn’t yet reached the maturity of the ones called to be apostles. Even the Circumcision Faction was hard at work feeding new converts, telling these converts that they must become proselytes to Judaism before they can come to Christ Jesus and walk as Jesus walked in the flesh; for Moses requires that an Israelite be outwardly circumcised before he can eat the Passover (Ex 12:48), with the Passover Lamb of God being represented in the broken bread and Cup taken in lieu of eating a bleating lamb. Thus, a betrayal of Jesus is historically seen through the Circumcision Faction’s insistence that there is only one Israel, the outwardly circumcised nation that descends biologically from the patriarchs.

Betrayal of Christ came from the Jew first [from Judas Iscariot, the only first disciple from Judea], then from the Greeks …

But—and here is where understanding the mysteries of God separates Israel from Israel—what is physical is one whereas what is spiritual is two, a subject that hasn’t been well understood by Christendom and a subject about which more will be written: it will here be asserted that the Circumcision Faction [of Judaism] betrayed Jesus through not understanding the movement from one to two so therefore insisted that Israel was one as Moses was one and as John the Baptist was one and as God was one, with the Circumcision Faction having Scripture on its side.

False Christians today use Scripture to hinder revelation just as the Adversary used Scripture when tempting Jesus (Matt 4:6) … there is an old adage, Figures don’t lie but liars always use figures. And so it is with Scripture which doesn’t lie, but false prophets, false teachers always use Scripture to support their lies.

When a Christian realizes that the Circumcision Faction consisted of Jews actively betraying Jesus while professing love for Him, the Christian will also realize that longevity of belief is not an argument for genuineness of belief. Within Christendom, lies are as old as the truth. … In the narrative of the Jerusalem Council, we see Paul and Barnabas, Peter and James negating the central premise of the Circumcision Faction, that a person must become a proselyte to Judaism before the person can be born of God. We see in Jude the shortcutting from Yah, the God Israel knew in the wilderness, to Jesus being the only Son of Yah who entered His creation to be born as a man through Jude saying, Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt … (v. 5). [Some surviving manuscripts substitute <the Lord> for <Jesus>, thereby illuminating the conflict that was occurring within the early Church, the conflict that publicly erupted in the 4th-Century Arian conflict long after the Body of Christ had died.] Thus, when the lie is as old as the truth, both coming from within the early Church, discerning who speaks truth and who is false becomes a matter of hearing the voice of Jesus … the sheep hear Jesus’ voice (John 10:3), but lambs lack the imprinting of Jesus’ voice in their minds so lambs are vulnerable: they can be seduced by soft words and spiritual nursery rhymes. But lambs are also still attached to the things of this world—and where their money goes is where their hearts go. If an attractive wolf coos like a dove and entices a lamb to sow seed in the good ground of the wolf’s ministry, the lamb will be spiritually blindsided and devoured.

Understand the above principle: where their money goes is where their hearts go … the spiritual lamb that invests in an eighth-day ministry places his or her heart into that ministry. Likewise, the spiritual lamb — time in the faith such as a Sabbatarian being thirty or forty years in the faith is no indicator of spiritual growth — that has grown past needing colostrum and now is able to digest a little good pasture as it continues to feed on its mother’s milk, this lamb always by now being a Sabbatarian Christian, that invests in a ministry of the Adversary places his or her money with the Adversary for “safe keeping.” Thus, the Sabbatarian Christian that supports a work that lacks spiritual understanding also lacks spiritual understanding. The Sabbatarian that supports a deceptive work is also deceptive. The Sabbatarian that supports a legalistic work is a legalist. The Sabbatarian that supports a work of the Sacred Names Heresy is a heretic. And on the list could go; for only the Sabbatarian that supports a work with spiritual understanding has spiritual understanding.

While it is the will of God that younger disciples help supply the needs of their elders in Christ as love is extended upward, and that the elders feed and tend younger disciples as expressions of love for Christ who is in these younger disciples, the ministry is not to place a burden on disciples: the ministry is not to ask for support from lambs, but is to ask God for whom the ministry works for support.

What, now, is spiritual meat if what Paul writes in his epistles is milk—and if what Peter feeds lambs and sheep is the equivalent to colostrum and later milk? And here is where this gets interesting: the little scroll was food for John, and food not given other first disciples. The little scroll was not milk, again what Paul fed the holy ones at Corinth; rather, the little scroll was food fit for the lone surviving apostle, food for the disciple Jesus loved best …

·   The angel Gabriel brought visions to Daniel, a man greatly loved by the Lord but a man not then born of spirit.

·   Paul brought spiritual milk to the holy ones at Corinth; for these holy ones remained spiritual infants (1 Cor 3:1–3).

·   The glorified Christ brought to John in vision revelation from the Father, with the vision delivered by Christ to John being to Daniel’s visions as the Firstborn Son of God is to an archangel.

The movement from angel to apostle to the glorified Christ reflects a movement in feed from dead grass to milk to meat—

Peter was to feed the lambs, each an infant in Christ, and then, later, feed the sheep, disciples who had matured to have faith equivalent to the first disciples, with the sheep not eating meat but only good pasture.

But God—He who created heaven and what is in it—caused John to eat the little scroll, thereby feeding John additional knowledge that was like the knowledge fed to lambs and sheep, but knowledge that was sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly.

Milk can be sweet in the mouth and sour in the belly, but not bitter in the belly. Good pasture is not bitter in the belly. But strong meat rather than simply solid food can be indigestible. By extension, strong meat can be bitter in the belly when digested.

John’s vision, like the little scroll itself, was sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his belly as John realized that considerable time would pass before Jesus returned; that even after Jesus received the kingdom, there would still be another 1260 days before He came as King of kings; that there would be a great blood bath immediately prior to when the kingdom is given to the Son of Man, followed by another blood bath in the Endurance of Christ … there was no previous knowledge of an Endurance in Jesus. The assumption was that when the kingdom was given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14), the Messiah would have come or would then come. The expectation was that the Messiah would forcibly take the kingdom from the prince of this world and would restore Israel as the kingdom of God here on earth.

Again, the vision brought to John was sweet in John’s mouth, but became bitter in his belly … as Daniel was greatly alarmed by the vision he received in the first year of Belshazzar (Dan 7:28) and appalled by the vision he received in the third year of Belshazzar (Dan 8:27), John understood the vision he received—hence it was sweet in his mouth—but in understanding the vision, John couldn’t help but feel bitterness in his belly by what the vision revealed. For the vision revealed knowledge that even the first disciples had not previously known, knowledge that must be taken to the world not just once, but a second time in the previously unknown Endurance in Christ. And this knowledge permitted John to know how long it would be before Jesus returned.

But John also understood that he could not personally take the knowledge he received even once to the world, let alone a second time: he understood that he would need partners and brothers—and with all of the first disciples dead except for himself, he understood that another generation of disciples, like the first disciples, would have to be raised up, hence the message to the angels of the seven churches.

John’s vision was placed on the far side of a lacunae separating the physical things of this world from the spiritual things of God … a lacunae is a gap in the text that permits the text to be opened up and examined from within—

And here is where this Sabbath Reading shall end. But the subject shall be continued in a third Reading.

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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."